WiMax: When, Not If

Omega1045 writes "An article over at SiliconValley.com got me excited about the new WiMax Technology that over 140 companies and organizations are pushing. The article is a little low on the technical side of things, but discusses a possible 10-mile range for the wireless technology. Many see this as a nice solution for the "last mile" problem. Similar technologies have seen a lot of hype before, but with the likes of Intel, Dell, British Telecom, AT&T and bunch of the Ma Bells, I think one can be forgiven for getting a little excited. If you are still skeptical, you can download the 'Complete Guide to WiMax.'"

Comments

It is amazing

[drsmack1]

It is amazing what happens when the FCC de-regulates part of the spectrum.

I'm all for wide-spread broadband...

[Agent Green]

...but in reality, this is just another stopgap until homes, curbs, etc. have better last-mile wiring capabilities (i.e. from SLIC huts and such).

Wireless remains a shared medium, of generally limited bandwidth...therefore, limited usefulness. This is just because it's a unguided medium. 10 miles sounds nice, but this is going to require specialized equipment because the signal losses between 10 GHz and 66 GHz are pretty significant over any distance, and will probably require line-of-sight as current wireless networks do.

Definitely a hyped up technology, I say.

Re:I'm all for wide-spread broadband...

[MtViewGuy]

The reason why 802.16 WiMax and its related 802.20 mobile wireless networking has generated much interest in the USA is the very fact that it's a lot cheaper to put up tranceiver towers for WiMax than to upgrade older residence and/or business locations to accept cable or DSL broadband. Also, the USA has enough rural areas where WiMax is probably the only way rural residents can get broadband.

WiMax is actually quite fast: it is theoretically capable of up data transfer rates far above that of wired residential broadband (I think the max limit is about 45 mbps download speeds).

In short, we have too much legacy telecommunications wiring that are not well-suited for broadband, and WiMax will bypass this limitation.

Think about the big picture!

[mrchaotica]

When I first heard of the concept of a wireless internet connection, I thought it would be cool to set up a network between my friends. Unfortunately, HAM packet radio required a license, and 802.11 doesn't have enough range. But this finally does.

So you're thinking, "what's the point?" The point is that it would be completely free of government and commercial control. Kind of like Freenet, but with better performance.

But that's not the cool part. The cool part is that with the right hardware and enough people, it could spread beyond my circle of friends and eventually replace the wired internet! It would be what the internet should have been -- completely decentralized and in control of the people.

Now, I realize that WiMax at 10 miles and not that much bandwith won't be completely adequate, but at least it's a start.

10 miles isn't anything special.

[_KiTA_]

10 Miles isn't anything special. We use normal 802.11b and reach about 10 miles now, we just put a flat panel antenna and a 100mw Cisco 350 / 200mw Engenius bridge / 100 mw Smartbridge bridge at the client location. Simple.

I suspect WiMAX will just cause us interference headaches, although since we can take 802.11b (what, a few hundred feet) adn stretch it to 10 miles, I wonder what we'll be able to do with WiMAX.

Re:Power

[Max Romantschuk]

Also my English teacher (read tree hugger) mentioned that you get a headache when you are in one building since it got a cell antena on top. It is noticeable.

I'd say it's far more likely that any indoor headaches would be caused by bad air quality and/or ergonomics than elecromagnetic radiation.

I'm not saying it's impossible, but there is very little scientific evidence to support your teacher's claims. That I know of anyway, feel free to prove me wrong.